Lord Palmerston,
to suppress, if he could not bring men of inferior celebrity to his own.
operations may,
over, all
a pirate.
to his own. Our contemplated,
tend to vitiate this compact;
should it have been concluded.
Since
my arrival in China, I
have not neglected to
urge the Commissioners
to the adoption of energetic measures for
the suppression of Piracy: and within the last month, Dr. Bowring, at Canton, under the authority of Your Lordship's instructions to myself, in Your Despatch No. 96 of the 31st October, 1848, offered the services of the Steamer Canton, placed at his disposal by the Peninsular and Oriental Company, under certain conditions of remuneration. Of these, he declined to avail himself, and in communications with myself, has been unsatisfactory.
No fewer than seven communications, in number, between the month of June, 1848 and the present time, his answers have been most unsatisfactory. In one of these, indeed, he asserts that exertions made by his orders, the evil is already on the decline.
In reply to my first application to him; 7th June, 1848, on the subject; which I dwelt on the good of the convoy system, and instanced the advantage Her Majesty's brig Espiegle had been enabled to afford to the authorities at Ningpo, he replied that officers of rank had received orders to exterminate the Pirates. When I reported last month H.M. Brig Pilot's success against some pirates at Amoy, I took occasion to recapitulate the different acts of piracy committed in this vicinity during the past year, repeating my demand for the murderers of Captain Da Costa and Lieutenant Dwyer, in the approbation of which there could be no difficulty, as they were notorious pirates, and of whom there could be no doubt.
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